Wednesday, July 23, 2014

AOHR UK: EU statement provides green light for Israeli onslaught

LONDON,(PIC)-- The Arab Organization for Human Rights in UK (AOHR UK) has stressed that EU leaders’ statement regarding the Israeli attack on Gaza is nothing short of a betrayal of the principles of human rights on which the EU was founded.

AOHR UK added in a statement on Wednesday that the EU statement on Tuesday (16-7) had put the victim on par with the killer and lacked any reference to the need to cease the targeting of civilians at a time when the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes had topped 213, most of them women and children, in addition to the 1623 Palestinians who have been wounded. Israeli massacres wiped out most members of at least 15 Palestinian families.

On Wednesday, Israeli shells killed four boys from the Bakr family playing on a beach in Gaza. As well as on Thursday 17/07/2014, Israeli warplanes targeted Shuheiber family house in Sabra neighborhood in central Gaza killing three children Fulla, Jihad and Waseem, ages between 8 and 10 years, the statement added.

AOHR UK pointed out that, despite all these facts, EU leaders’ statement referred to “Israel’s right to defend itself” without announcing any measures against Israel, which enjoys military and economic privileges with the EU, similar to the measures undertaken by the EU to punish other countries which committed crimes against innocent civilians.

AOHR UK stressed that the EU position vis-à-vis Israeli crimes was not surprising considering EU’s history of justifying Israeli atrocities, a stand which implies that human rights are divisible and could be breached with total impunity.

The organization said that EU leaders’ statement does not represent the position of most Europeans who condemn the killing of civilians in Gaza and view them as crimes against humanity that should not go unpunished.

AOHR UK urged EU countries to revisit their shameful position and put an immediate freeze on all security and military contracts with Israel because Palestinian women and children are being murdered with European technology and weapons Israel imports from Europe.

The Organization called upon EU countries especially Britain, France and Germany to freeze all contracts with Israel and put an immediate stop to all arms exports to Israel. Reports estimate that these three countries alone account for billions of dollars’ worth of weapons deals with Israel.

The Organization also urged the international community to sever its military links with Israel and cease their arms imports from Israel because most of these weapons had been tested on innocent civilians. Reports from Gaza indicate that Israel has used newly-developed weapons during its latest offensive on Gaza in a clear sign that Israel is testing these weapons in preparation for marketing them.